project

One of the nation’s best skate parks is seeing the consequences of plans for a new Louisville-to-Indiana ramp as part of Spaghetti Junction. Roughly one-third of the park will be relocated. Construction of the new ramps began on May 1st and with it came the demolition of parts of the skate park standing in its way.

Initially the plan was to demolish part of the park and build the new highway. However, members of the Louisville Metro Parks Foundation took notice to which parts of the park would be removed and decided it had to be saved. These parts include the most extreme sections of the skate park, such as the full pipe, that make it one of the best in the nation.

The original building cost of the entire park was $2 million in 2002 and the cost of relocation of only one-third of the park is just over that at roughly $2.1 million, which will be funded by the bridges project responsible for the construction of the new ramps. One of the reasons why the renovation is so expensive is because the new location sits on top of a gas line and sewer which need to be dealt with before construction can begin.

Parts of the park that are not being worked on will remain open to the public and separated from the construction site by a temporary wall so that people may continue to enjoy the park while staying safe. Different areas of the park will open and close as the project moves along in the coming months. “It’s kind of a bummer that this is all happening right at the beginning of summer,” said skateboarder Mason Mivelaz (11), ” but I’m glad that parts are staying open.”

Students in Ms. Alesia Williams’s junior AP English Language and Composition class participated in her annual class satire competition.

Ms. Williams assigns the project each year in April as part of her unit on satire, “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.” according to dictionary.com. (Go to RedEye’s Ridiculam and The Onion for examples of satire.)

Students submitted their projects in one of six different categories: Onion-like article, proposal, video, song, children’s book and political cartoon/advertisement.

After all the students in a given class have completed their project presentations, the class fills out a ballot saying which project he or she thought was best in each category, after which they would select a “best of the best” in their class. Each winner received extra credit for their project.

This year, Avery Holland (12, YPAS) launched Crimson Cartography, a creative project for Manual students in which participants draw a representation of their individual high school experience within an image of Manual’s outline.

“The goal is for each student to create a unique ‘map’ of their experience as a Crimson,” she said. “When we put them all together, they are as diverse and creative as Manual. The submissions are all scanned and uploaded to a Tumblr, so that everyone can see the pieces.”

Holland modeled Crimson Cartography after ‘Mapping Manhattan’, a similar undertaking in New York City. Another ‘mapping’ project also took place in Boston, Mass.

Students chose to illustrate their experiences in many different ways. “I decided to draw the courtyard and the hallways during spirit week,” said Misha Haq (10, MST). “I love how much spirit we have, and I wanted to represent that.”

Others created more abstract images. “I drew a collage of flowers and swirls that surrounded the letters ‘MST”, for the name of my magnet,” said Namuunaa Nadmid (10, MST). “The rest of the design represents my passion for art and creating patterns.”

Crimson Cartography is ongoing, and submissions will be accepted in the office or by Mr. Kingsley during lunch until the project’s currently undetermined end date.

This past Wednesday, students who purchased lunch may have noticed a change in the way they received their meals. Kayla Soren (10, HSU) recently launched an endeavor called Wasteless Wednesdays to replace the styrofoam trays in the cafeteria with paper ones.

“I am a Girl Scout, and I began this project as part of my Gold Award,” Kayla said. “I don’t like how we use styrofoam in the cafeteria because it’s bad for the environment and they don’t decompose. Recyclable paper plates are a good alternative.”

Currently, this option is only available on pizza day, because other lunch items are too heavy to fit in the paper trays. Students have the choice to opt out; however, Kayla has hung several signs encouraging them to choose the more environmentally-friendly option.

The debut of Wasteless Wednesdays went relatively successfully, although not without a few problems. “Even though we had more recycling, our signs fell down, so a lot of students threw their regular trash into the recycling bin,” said Ms. Leanne Buehner, Nutritional Manager. “I think that more students will opt for the paper trays as time goes on.”

While a few students were startled by the change, most did not find it very inconvenient. “Honestly, I didn’t take much notice,” said Sam Naser (10, MST). “I don’t really consciously think about helping the environment, but these plates weren’t really any worse.”

The Gay-Straight-Transgender Alliance continues to meet administrative resistance to their latest project.

Last year under club president Kelsey McKim, the club created rainbow-decorated triangles supporting LGBT students. The club meant to request that teachers put them in their rooms in order to show support, but it never happened due to time constraints.

The triangles read: “This is a safe space for all students, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or any other sexual orientation or gender identity. Hate and discrimination will not be tolerated.”

This year, the club’s co-presidents, Zoe Schaver (12) and Maura Hayse (11), sent a letter to Principal Wooldridge explaining their project and included one of the triangles. “We wanted to inform him as a courtesy, because we were going to have teachers put these up in their classes and we thought that he should know,” said Schaver.

Wooldridge took issue with the triangles because there are rules in place which should make the whole school a safe place, and he thought the triangles implied that this was not the case.

“While it is true that there are rules in place to protect LGBT students, they are often specifically targeted for bullying, and the triangles are a message of support,” said Schaver.

Wooldridge then explained to them that, because of his impending retirement, he felt that this was too big a decision for him to make about the school himself. He requested that GSTA take their idea and present it to the SBDM council to gain their approval.

Schaver presented the idea during the council meeting on May 1. The council, including teacher representative Tim Holman, agreed that while the triangles were a good idea, they were not in the council’s jurisdiction.

“The SBDM basically told us that they were fine, just so long as we got the permission from individual teachers,” said Schaver.

However, once the club started to ask teachers to display the symbol, Wooldridge asked Schaver and Hayes to stop distributing the triangles.

According to Schaver, Wooldridge had spoken to the Assistant District Superintendent after their previous meeting. The two of them had decided that the triangles should not be put up until every teacher gets sensitivity training on how to deal with LGBT issues. They were worried that the triangles would be interpreted to mean that students who were dealing with LGBT problems could go to the teacher who displayed the triangle for help, and proper help could not be offered until teachers were educated on the subject.

However, due to the fact that Wooldridge will not be principal next year, he cannot authorize the training for any current teachers. Thus, the triangle project has been pushed back again to be dealt with next year by a new principal.